Kaval's Kickoff: New stadium updates and the playoff push

Quakes President Kaval to hold office hours at new stadium site once a month

September 18, 2013

Dave Kaval

It was great hosting fans at the new stadium site this week at my office hours. I was happy to give tours of the site as well as answer questions on the stadium design, timeline and amenities. It is fun to physically walk on the future field of play or stand at the future scoreboard bar and gaze down at the field. We have been busy laying the rebar for the team building and concessions and restroom buildings and continue to excavate the stadium foundations. Next step is pouring concrete, which will be happening within the next two weeks. We are on track to erect the team building steel in November and the stadium steel starting in December.

Here are a list of some of the questions I received and the answers:

Q: Will there be a team store? A: Yes. There is a stand-alone team store in the Epicenter open end of the stadium. It will be open on non-game days as well and feature all of the Quakes great merchandise.

Q: How much is the city investing in the stadium?A: Nothing. The entire stadium project is privately financed. No tax payer money.

Q: Are there personal seats licenses if you want to buy season tickets and how much are they? A: No. We have no personal seat licenses for the stadium.

Q: What is the team building? A: The team building is a two floor 25,000 square feet building. The first floor contains the home and visitor locker rooms, training room, dedicated hydro room, gym and workout area, players lounge, coaches locker room, coaches offices, media room, equipment storage, laundry facilities, referees locker rooms, box office, and game day office space. The second floor contains the office space for the front office. We will move from our current offices at 451 El Camino to the new stadium. The player amenities in the team building will be state of the art and help us to attract high profile players as well as better provide for the team and its training requirements. The team building is a hop skip and a jump from our existing team training field and will provide a fantastic set up to prepare the club for competitions. Furthermore, the locker rooms can be divided and can accommodate up to five locker rooms for doubleheaders, international competitions, and college tournaments.

Q: What is Devcon and why do they have all these signs? A. Devcon is our general contractor. They are one of the most prestigious and accomplished construction firms on the West Coast. They are currently building the San Francisco 49ers Stadium as well as the Quakes new stadium. They make very powerful coffee in their on-site trailer.

Q: Will the stadium host USMNT matches? A: Yes. The size and location of the stadium is well suited for national team matches and we plan to have them at the facility.

Q: What type of surface will the field be? A: The field will be Bermuda hybrid grass field. It will be the same surface as Buck Shaw and the Quakes practice field.

Q: How tall will the stadium be? A: The stadium will be eight stories tall.

Q: Will we have anything spelled out in the seats like European stadiums? A: Yes. We will have Quakes spelled out in the seats in the end zone end.

Q: What are those piles of rocks? A: Those piles of rocks are the crushed concrete and asphalt from the underground vaults and slab concrete that was previously demolished.

Due to the great response from folks at the stadium office hours, I have decided to have office hours at the stadium once a month. The next office hours will be Tuesday, October 15 at the new stadium site between 3-7pm. I wanted to go until 7pm for those folks who are working.

It was a great result last night against Montreal in the CONCACAF Champions League (CCL). The 3-0 win propelled us into a tight race to win Group 5. We need to root for Montreal to beat Heredia next Wednesday and we will control our own fate on October 23 at Buck Shaw against Heredia in the final match. I know that many folks do not follow CCL, but I encourage you to get on board. This is a great international soccer competition and is quite prestigious. Winning our group will push us into the knock out stage in March against some other MLS teams and many of the top tier Mexican teams. The winner of the CCL goes to the Club World Cup against the other regional champions league winners, including the UEFA Champions League winner. Now that would be big time!

We have a huge match this weekend in Salt Lake City. We need to get three points against RSL to keep the playoff push going. The team is healthy, and we have all our weapons ready for a great result. The match is on CSNCA at 6:00pm PT on Saturday. Let's make it happen.